Electrical appliance for clocks.



PATENTED PEB..25, 1908. H. 0. SWEDBERG & A. T. DURBIN.

ELECTRICAL APPLIANCE FOR CLOCKS. APPLICATION FILED over. 11, 1906.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

WJTNESSES L'VVENTORJ r By /I A TTO-RNE Y5 No. 879,924. PATBNTBD FEB. 25, 1908.

. H. 0. SWEDBERG & A. T. DURBIN.

ELECTRICAL APPLIANCE FOR CLOCKS.

APPLICATION I'ILED OCT. 11, 190B.

2 sums-81mm 2.

LVVli/VTORS Wlnv ss s A TTORNE Y5 .the tram 55. arbor 11 t UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HARRY OTTO SWEDBERG AND AMOS T. DURBIN, OF ROSSVILLE, ILLINOIS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 25, 1908.

Application filed October 11. 1906- Serial No. 338.530.

To all whom it may concern:

' Be it known that we, HARRY OTTo SWED- BERG and Arms T. DURBiN, citizens of the United States, residin at Rossville, in the county of Vermilion an State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Electrical Ap liance for Clocks, of which the following is a specification.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide an alarm device for hotels and the like where it is desired to sound alarms to call guests at any desired time.

A further object of the invention is to provide a device of this type by which an alarm placed in any room may be sounded at any our, and by which all of the alarms in all of the rooms may be simultaneously operated at the same hour or at different hours as desired.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a circuit closing mechanism of simple construction, and a switch board which may be operated by the clerk or other attendant without the exercise of any special skill.

, With these and other objects in view, as will more fully hereinafter a ear, the invention consists in certain novell eatures of construction and arrangement of parts, hereinafter full described, illustrated in the accompanymg drawings, and particularly pointed out in the appended claims, it being understood that various changes in the form, proportions, size and minor details of the structure may be made without departing from the s irit or sacrificing any of the advanta es 0 the invention.

In t e accompanying drawings :Figure 1 is a view, partlyin the nature of a diagram, illustrating the circuit closing device, the switchboard and the connections leading to the various rooms .or other places where alarms or signals are to be arranged. Fig. 2 is a detail sectional view of a portion of the circuit closing device. Fig. 3 is a detail section of a portion of the switch board drawn to an enlarged scale.

Similar numerals of reference are employed to indicate correspondin parts throughout the several fi ures of, the rawings.

At the cler s oflice or at any other central point is laced a clock 10 which ma be'provided with the usual clock train an time indicati devices. From one of the wheels of power is transmitted to a shaft or at is placed below or to one'side of the clock train, and is arranged to be turned once every twelve hours. On this arbor 11 is secured an arm 15 carrying at its free end a contact spring 16 that is arranged to move between two annular series of contacts 17, the latter being carried by two spaced disks 19 and 20 that are mounted on the clock frame or casing, the arbor 11 passing through the axes of these disks. The contacts 17 are preferably in the form of small springs which are carried by binding posts 21, the latter being arranged on the outer face of the disks and being connected to wires 24 and 25, all of these wires being connected to each pair of contacts, and each being arranged in an independent circuit that extends to a battery 27, and from thence to the switch board.

The switch board is provided with twelve horizontally disposed rows of jacks corresponding to the twelve pairs of contacts 17 and the number of jacks in each row corresponds to the number of rooms or the number of alarms to be sounded, ten of such jacks being shown in each row for the control of ten separate signals. Each row of jacks is connected to one set of wires 24.- and 25 leading to a pair of contacts 17 and the jack connections may be bridged at any point by the circuit leading to any room or any alarm.

In each room is a signaling means 30, which, in the present instance is indicated .in the form of an electrical bell. This bell is connected by two wires 31 to a plug 32, the plugs being arranged to rest in sockets 33 on the table in front of the switch board when the circuits are open.

When an alarm is to be sounded at any hour in any room, the plug of that .alarm circuit is placed in the proper jack in the switch board, thus, for instance, if an alarm is to be sounded at ten oclock in room No. 10, the clerk or other 0 erator merely lifts No. 10 plug and places it in one of the jacks in the tenth row, this tenth row being connected by the wires 24 and 25 to the battery and to the two contacts 17, indicatin ten oclock at the circuit controlling mec anism. At ten oclock the contact 16 will be brought between the two ten oclock contacts of the disk, and the circuit will be closed between the battery and the alarm at room No. 10.

. The structure is such that a'separate battery is employed for each air of circuit closers, that is to say, twelve atteries'in all, and if it is desired to ring all of the bells of all. of the rooms at the same hour, all of the plugs are-placed in one row of jacks, and

this is found of es ecial value for the reason that by placing al of the plugs in one row of jacks and advancing the clock mechanism by hand, the clerk may sound an alarm in every room in case of fire or other emergency.

1. In an ap aratus of the class described, the combination with two fixed annular spaced series of spring contacts, each terminating in a binding post, of a clock-actuated spring bridging contact arranged to successively bridge the op osin contacts of the two series, a sw1tchmen having rows of 1&CkS, the number of rows corresponding to the number of contacts in the annular series, each row being connected to one of said contacts, alarms and alarm circuits, and separate plu s connected to said circuits and insertib e in said jacks.

2. In an apparatus of the class described, the combination with a pair of spaced disks,

board having a number of rows of jacks equal to the number or contacts in each annular series and connected thereto, a battery in each of said connections, a series of alarms; and a series of alarm circuits each including a seprate plug insertible in any one of the jacks.

natures in the presence of two Witnesses.

HARRY OTTO SWEDBERG. AMOS T. DURBIN.

Witnesses:

EDITH A. CRAYs, G. E. CRA Ys.

In testimony that we claim the foregoing as our own, we have hereto ar'hxed our s1g- 

